Muslims in Gujarat are now endorsing development plank of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Keeping aside the past, they are singing development tune set by the Gujarat Chief Minister through his brainchild ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ Summit. leading Muslim businessmen in the State are setting up Gujarat Chapter of Muslim Business Chamber (MBC), only second of its kind in the country, with a view to focus on developing entrepreneurship among the community members.
Over the past one decade, Gujarat is attracting investments from all across the globe. At a time when global players are looking forward for heavy investments in the State, the MBC has decided to initiate its second branch in Gujarat only after New Delhi.
With 30 years of experience behind him, 55-year-old economist Mohammad Saqib played instrumental role to establish the MBC in the national capital in 2012. “Though MBC has identified 20 clusters across the country, businessmen from Gujarat were quick to set the stage for the second chapter of the MBC. “Muslim businessmen too proved that business runs in the veins of Gujaratis.”
Saqib who studied economics at University of Western Ontario in Canada was concerned about plight of Muslims in Gujarat. “I used to think that Muslims are economically not well-off and being discriminated,” he said. However his perception completely changed after he actually travelled across the State.
“Industrial development in Gujarat is phenomenal. Here people understand business. Compared to other States, Gujarat definitely doing better,” says the economist who had worked at top Delhi-based institutions, including Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies (RGICS).
Iqbal Maniar, core committee member of Gujarat unit of the MBC, says that the dedicated chamber for Muslim businessman would fill lacuna of high level recognition to successful entrepreneurs within the community. “The platform would help Muslim entrepreneurs to work more professionally on their businesses,” says Maniar.
“Businessmen from minority community are doing extremely well in textile, handicrafts and numerous SME businesses. large participation from the community was registered in the State Government’s ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ initiative too,” says Sabbir Dulla, committee member of the Gujarat MBC.
The MBC plans to focus on small and medium enterprises. Muslims comprise a substantial percentage of overall businesses in the unorganised sector making enormous contribution to not only Gujarat but to the Indian economy too, says Squib.
“The idea is to link these small-scale businesses with the market. Everything will be automatically taken care of, if there is a linkage between market forces and small entrepreneurs without any involvement of brokerage in between,” say the MBC members.